Florida GOP Lawmaker Files Bill That Could Jail Doctors For Treating Trans Youth: Report

Florida GOP Representative Anthony Sabatini filed legislation Thursday that may contradict an executive order signed by President Joe Biden on January 27, 2021.

Biden’s executive order on “Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation” stated that “Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports.”

Sabatini countered in a tweet saying, “Both women’s sports and our children must be protected from radical social experimentation.”

Sabatini’s bill, HB 935, would disallow transgender men from competing in girls’ sports in school.

The bill would also make it illegal to perform transgender surgery on children.

The bill allows for a “health care practitioner acting in accordance with a good faith medical decision of a parent or guardian of a minor born with a medically verifiable genetic disorder of sex development.”

HB 935 states, “Only students of the female sex are eligible to participate on athletic teams designated for girls only.”

If passed, the bill would take effect July 1, 2021.

Equality Florida slammed Sabatini’s bill on Thursday, writing on Facebook: “A bill filed today attacks transgender youth and threatens doctors with prison for providing them life saving care. QANON conspiracy theorist and anti-masker Rep. Anthony Sabatini has reintroduced an even more outrageous version of the bill he filed last year that would have sent doctors to prison for up to 20 years for providing medical support to transgender children and their parents. Once again he is using some of the most at-risk youth in our state to score cheap political points with his base. Transgender youth need acceptance, safety, and love. We should be working together to keep them safe, not attacking them and their families. Rep. Sabatini should be ashamed. At a time when transgender women are facing an epidemic of discrimination and hate-motivated violence, this legislation isn’t just a waste of time, it’s dangerous.”